Confessions of a H2Oaholic

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Just as I laughed about the colonoscopy conversation a couple weeks ago, we had another funny workout chat last week. This time it was about tattoos. Only at masters workout do you share a lane with more tattoos than people. There were 3 of us in the lane that day (a guy, bikini girl, and I) and between the 3 of us we counted 9 tattoos. Well, 9 that were visible. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more! LOL!

What brought the conversation up was that bikini girl had been gone from workout for about 3 weeks and I told her that I’d missed her at practice. (Yes, I was afraid she had discovered my blog… just kidding!). Come to find out, she had been letting her new tattoo heal. Then the guy in our lane chimed in and showed us this really cool mermaid tattoo he has and explained the meaning of all the elements. It was really fascinating to hear the thought that went into it.

The rest of the practice I thought about how lucky I am to swim with such fun and interesting people. The workout flew by and before I knew it we were done. By the way, the main set that day was 3x500s. That was the longest set I had done since my return! Ouch! Just wanted to be sure you know that we don’t do more talking than swimming….

Life has been so crazy lately and I have fallen so far behind on my blog. Sorry friends. I miss you guys! =) Traveling has gotten the best of me but I've been totally loving it. I haven't been in the pool nearly as much as I want to/need to.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

I like to talk. I’m sure that isn’t a surprise to you. I was always the girl in elementary school who had good grades but would “do much better if she wasn’t so busy talking during class”. So I solved this problem by becoming a note passer and conducted conversations on paper. Uh huh… that was me. And all these years later not much has changed. I still love to yack with people.

Friday, at workout, I experienced something that just doesn’t happen to me. A conversation was taking place amongst some of the women on the team, and for once in my life, I had nothing to contribute to the discussion. And believe me, I was glad to have nothing to add. They were talking about colonoscopies. How long it takes to get an appointment, the diet you have to suffer through prior to it, their husbands experience with it… Yeah. I heard it all. Quite a bit more than I wanted to know in fact. As I stood there and overheard the conversation, I thought to myself “My God. Only at a masters swim workout would these words be exchanged on a pool deck”.

All I can say is that I hope they don’t come to workout while on their liquid diets. If they do, I’m running the other way.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Yesterday I discovered the difference between lap swimming and going to my masters swim practice. I’ve been busy playing catch up with work and life since I was traveling last week, so I missed workout on Wednesday.

Instead of just “skipping" it totally, I went and swam laps on my lunch hour yesterday. Half the pool was filled with youth swim lessons – i.e. lots of happy, screaming kids. The bleachers were full of parents. The lap lanes were – empty! Go figure! I didn’t have to deal with the challenge of sharing a lane with an incompatible lane buddy (haha).

That said, it was … lonely. I missed my masters buddies. I missed having an organized workout, with a coach giving sets and advice to focus on. There was no one to laugh with, or talk about how out of shape we are. Or even just to say hi to. LOL!

It was good for me to experience this. I won’t complain anymore about lane hogs. Yesterday I learned I’d rather swim with a lane hog than without one. For me, the people are a big part of the fun.

Monday, October 19, 2009

It was great to get back in the pool today after having some time off due to traveling for work. I definitely missed the feeling of successfully completing a good workout.

Today I shared a lane with two women who happened to be slower than me. I have no problem with that at all, but what is totally irritating is sharing a lane with people who do not use proper lane sharing etiquette. It was getting so frustrating that I actually finished up a little earlier than planned.

So here is my lane sharing “wish list”:

If someone is faster than you and they’re coming into the wall for a flip turn, don’t push off right in front of them

Please don’t swim down the middle of the lane. It’s hard for someone to pass!

When you’re resting on the wall, please move to the left side of the lane so the person coming into the wall can do a flip turn and keep going!

Anyway, I feel SO much better now… Thanks for letting me whine! ;-) Wednesday’s workout has GOT to be better!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately: Why do I love to swim? Analyzing this has helped keep me in tune with why I’ve started swimming again, or as an old friend put it today, decided to “make a comeback”. (I thought that was pretty cute!)

Here’s why I love to swim:

I feel good when I swim. There is nothing like the feeling of sliding comfortably through the water.

Along with that, I get to feel kind of like a kid again. And that is always a good thing.

I love the quietness of swimming. All I hear is the sound of the water and whatever thoughts I decide to have. It is absolutely peaceful.

It gives me the opportunity to remember what it’s like to be good at something – even though I’m not that good right now!

I love the camaraderie of masters swimming.

I get to unplug. Contrary to popular belief, I do not swim with my laptop and Blackberry attached to me.

I don’t care what anyone says, but I have always loved swim suit shopping. And they are so darn cute these days!